Intro to ethics Flashcards
Peter Singer 1995: 174
To live ethically is to think about things beyond one’s own interests.
When I think ethically I become just one being, with needs and
desires of my own, certainly, but living among others who also have
needs and desires.
What is ethics?
Branch of philosophy concerned with questions of right and wrong
Moral judgements
3 branches of Ethics
Metaethics (language, logic; what does “good” mean)
Normative ethics (ways of behaving, codes of conduct)
Applied ethics (solving practical problems as they arise in professions
like policing and medicine)
Why do we need to study ethics?
They prepare us with rules and frameworks for decision-making
and support development.
Ethics in Criminal Justice
Decisions surrounding use of force
Questioning and analyze assumptions (e.g., the role of punishment, fairness,
systematic racism, equal opportunity)
Defining unethical behaviour
Developing critical reasoning skills
Normative Ethics
One’s conduct must consider moral
issues; one should act morally and use
reason to make decisions.
How do we decide right and wrong?
Ethical standards vary situation to situation
Ethical Relativism
What is morally ethical differs from person to person and culture to culture
When determining if someone acted morally, we need to judge them
against the standards that are appropriate for that culture, profession or
situation
3 forms of Ethical Relativism
Ethical
Cultural
Individual
Cultural Relativism
moral beliefs and practices differ from culture to culture. They do
not note which practices are right or wrong, just that they differ
Individual Relativism (Short)
Moral beliefs can vary from person to person
Objections to Cultural Relativism
What makes up a culture? There are many cultures within a
country, city, organization, how we identify changes
Cultural relativism can become transformed into individual. With
so many cultures, what is culture and what is individual?
What happens when cultures overlap? Whose standards apply?
What standards, from what historical period should apply?
When everything is relative, it suggests the debate of what is
right, should end.
Ethical Absolutism (Definition)
This view proposes that there exits an eternal and unchanging
moral law, the same for all people, at all times and places.
On true perspective
Absolutist perspective on capital punishment
Ethical Absolutism (Examples)
Murder must be given the punishment he or she deserves, or…
There is justification for judicial murder
(Abortion, illegal immigration, euthanasia)
Ethical Pluralism (Short)
There are many truths, rather than a
single truth
Four Principles of Ethical Pluralism
Understanding, Tolerance, Standing up against evil, Fallibility
Moral Absolutism
The view that there is one set of moral rules, principles, or values that. is true for all people and for all times
Pluralist or (Pluralism)
The Belief that diversity and multiple perspectives coexisting in a society is both inevitable and beneficial. It emphasizes mutual respect among different cultures, groups, and individuals, recognizing that no single perspective or vale has a monopoly on truth or validty
“Absolutist”
“Some things are always are right and some things are always wrong”
Law in Ethics
Legislature, Statues, Regulations
-Not intended to incorporate ethical values, but sometimes ethical standards may be reflected in laws. (Murder or Rape)
Ethical Standards
Not written, but represent the collective experience of society; norms
Ethical Dilemma as apposed to merely a dilemma
An ethical dilemma arises only when a decision must be made that involves a conflict at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, or societal level or raises issues of rights or moral character.
Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice
- Use of Authority
- Ethical problems in relationships between personal and professional interests
- Criminal justice and public policy
- Policing Policies
- Information Sharing
- Human rights issues
- Media reporting a crime
Ethical Dilemmas working in Criminal Justice Systems
Personal & Professional Dilemmas
Personal Ethical Dilemma:
Dilemmas that may concern issues such as your commitment to your career and caring for your family. Sometimes those personal dilemmas will arise because of your role as an officer; because you have considerable discretion, you may be asked to do “favours” for friends. What do you do when the person you have pulled over for im- paired driving turns out to be a friend, neighbour, colleague, or family member?
Professional Ethical Dilemma:
as part of your operational and administrative duties, you will have to decide on behalf of an agency or institution what decision or course of action will be adopted.
Personal or professional ethical problems can have a number of different elements. The objective or goal will always be an important element or consideration. Some ethical problems readily fall under a means–end model of reasoning where the desired outcome is specified and the task is to identify a method of reaching that outcome. Other problems, however, may contain a quite different element, that of determining what the objective should be in the first place.
Critical Thinking and Ethical Reasoning in Criminal Justice
Policing, corrections, and security have public safety as their common goal and share many ethical considerations.
Ethical Questions
Central to many situations facing us both in our personal and professional lives
- These questions address the value and meaning of our lives and are at the core of being a good person and a good officer
What do Ethics Determine?
Right and wrong, good and bad
Early Psychological Inquiries of Ethics
Surprise, vague and impractical in a contemporary world.
Greek Philosophers believed human lives are worthwhile when
- They are thoughtful and reflective
- People choose activities on the basis of good reasons
- People care about their friends, families, and communities
_________ determines right and wrong, good or bad- Greek Philosophers
Ethics
Values
Beliefs and opinions about matters that we decide are beneficial, desirable, and important to an individual, group, or community
- Not necessarily related to distinguishing good and bad
- One’s values may be premised purely on self-interest or doing what is best for that individual and not what is ethically right or good
Ethical Values
Values that are related to determining what is right or good
- Govern how a person determines right and wrong and interacts with others in society
Applications to Relationships
Ethics cover interpersonal relations and the principles of governing those relationships
________________ are precepts/concepts that inform or underlie what is considered to be good, bad, right, or wrong conduct
Ethical Principles
________ are not limited to interpersonal/ social relationships. They can also be found towards animals and the physical environment.
Ethical obligations
Ethical judgments, Statements, Values, and Obligations have the following 3 essential qualities:
Universal/impartial
Motivating
Overridning
Ethical Obligations
Obligations that apply to everyone that provide reasons for acting that override other reasons.
Focusing on structure or form, raher than content, we receive some guidance in understanding ________
Ethical obligations in contrast to other, more general obligations.
Personal Integrity
The quality of acting in accordance with values.
_________ can mean acting in accordance with personal values, but if the values are bad, then actions in accordance with those values will turn out bad.
Acting with Integrity
Personal Integrity (Police Officer)
An officer must link integrity to acting in accordance with accepted professional or ethical values, not just upholding general or personal values.
Acting with ethical integrity means:
- Speaking out when you see things that are wrong.
- Critically reflecting on your own actions and the actions of others.
- Being able and willing to act appropriately and explain why you acted in a certain way.
_________ is about understanding the difference between good and bad. Ensures good-living and worthwhile lives.
Ethics
__________ is concerned with goodness, fairness, and justice.
Morality
______ or _____ cannot necessarily be equated with religion, the law, or our families.
Ethics or Morals
Morals
Having to do with principles of right or wrong in conduct or character. Standards of “Good Behaviour”
Examples of Morals:
Don’t kill people
Speak the truth
Do not cheat
Ethical Reasoning
The application of formal logic to questions of right/wrong, good/bad, justice/injustice. (Thinking critically about what the right thing to do is)
Tyranny of the Majority
A majority is not enough to ensure that an action is right or ethical
Acting unethically/immoraly
Freely Choosing to do what is wrong
________ and ________ are essential elements to good human lives
Thinking and Reasoning
Virtues
Elements of conduct recognized by society as the standards for all individual’s moral lives.
Aristotle’s four primary virtues:
Wisdom, Justice, Courage, Self-Control
- “Because we all want good lives, we should all want to live in accordance with those virtues; we should all want to act ethically”
__________ and _________ ethical values or perspectives may conflict with eachother
Professional and Personal
What may an officer encounter in ethical problems
Personal ethical dilemmas
Professional Dilemmas
_________ ethics are primarily meant to provide guidance for making decisions, whether on a personal, individual, corporate, or collective level.
Professional
Classes of Ethics
Personal, Societal, Business,
Professional ex:
- Medicine
- Social work
- Psychology
- Law
Considerations for practice
Understand that a key part of professional ethical practice is the capacity for individual and group reflection in relation to the established code of ethics (where one exists)
Conflict Management Styles
Empowerment, Multiple Voices, Reflexivity
Empowerment
Working with collaborators as equals – experts & owners of their own lived experience and future possibilities
Multiple Voices Recognize the way that meanings of problems, identity, social change, roles & relationships are:
Situated in different contexts (in place & time)
- Continuously negotiated and constructed within multiple relationships and processes
Reflexivity
The values of an open, questioning, and constructively critical perspective on what we do.
How do our actions?
- Permit collaboration of others
- Support self-directed change?
Sources of Ethical Norms
Society, Family, Fellow Workers, Country of Origin, Profession, Employer, Religious Beliefs, The Law, and Friends.
Important Ethical Questions:
What is? What is ought to be?
How do we get from what is to what ought to be? What is our motivation for acting ethically?
Two types of Questions an ethical theory must answer:
What principles are being used? (the nature of the principles)
What is the scope of those principles? (when they apply)
Evaluating Ethical theories
The objectives of learning can be stated as a hierarchy, with knowledge at the bottom and evaluation at the top. Tells us not only what we do, but also what we should do.
Descriptive Ethics
Not limited to describing ethical facts or principles.
Prescriptive Ethics
Prescribed ethical conduct
Normative Ethics
Form the basis of applied ethics;
Meta-ethics
Focuses on the development of theories about how we should interpret moral concepts and theories
Applied ethics
Seek to develop theories about how we apply normative theories to ethical dilemmas and issues.
Jeremy Bentham (Utilitarianism):
Sought to provide a comprehensive system of laws based on the “greatest happiness principle.”
John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism):
Convinced that the principle of utility was not only the correct foundation of a system of ethics but was also necessary for progressive social change.
Issues with Utiliarianism
Theoretical and practical problems with utilitarianism are connected with our ability to define, measure, and integrate good consequence.
Consequences of Utilitarianism
- The nature of the consequences and the time span over which consequences are to be considered.
- Because we cannot be certain of the outcomes of our actions, we must deal in probable consequences
- As soon as we deal with probable consequences, the objective nature of the utilitarian approach disappears
_____________ insist that each individual has the right to do whatever they want, provided that they have the same respect for others
Libertarians
Libertarianism
Libertarians would argue that a person has the right as they wish with their body, and if a person voluntarily agrees with another person to have them assist in helping that person die, the state has no right to interfere.
Divine Command Theory of Morality (Def)
This theory suggests that what drives us to live well is an independent and objective right way to live that has been defined by god.
Divine Command Theory: Set of Rules
- There is a God
- God commands and forbids certain acts
- An action is right if God commands it and wrong if God forbids it
- People can ascertain what God commands or forbids
Moral Naturalism: Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Argued that all of the differences between human beings and other animals, the moral sense is by far the most important.
- Naturalistic Theory
Deontological Ethics
A duty-based ethical theory not requiring the existence of God
Immanuel Kant
The motives of actions (consequentialist versus non-consequentialist theories)
___________ ethics are concerned with explaining the nature of morality specifically, the difference between a moral and a non-moral action
Deontological
Moral Action
An action performed out of duty, rather than on the basis of feeling, or consequences.
Ethics as a Social Contract
Made the claim that there would be a unanimous agreement
on two sets of principles of justice in this original position:
John Rawls (1921-2002):
Made the claim that there would be unanimous agreement on two sets of principles of justice in this original position
Principles of Justice (John Rawls 1921-2002)
Original Position
Veil of ignorance
Original Position
People in the Original Position do not have total freedom to design society as they see fit. Rather, they must choose from a menu of views taken from traditional Western philosophy on what justice involves.
Veil of Ignorance
When we are thinking about justice, Rawls suggests that we imagine that we do not know many of the facts-both about ourselves and the society we currently live in that typically influence our thinking in biased ways.
Moral Relativism (def)
Meta-Ethical theory that seeks to explain how we should interpret moral concepts and theories
- Ethical values or principles are purely the products of culture
- Ethical values and principles vary from culture to culture.
- What is morally acceptable has changed over time
- Concludes that there is no objective truth in morality
Moral Relativisim
Feminist Ethics
- Different “way of ethics.”
- A common thread in the writings of these thinkers is the identification of power and privilege, as well as the restricted access to the political process.
- We still have a long way to go to combat unfair structures and the statues quo
True or False: It is difficult to apply ethical theories to real ethical dilemmas
True
What Restricts the application of ethical theories to Real ethical dilemmas
Code of thics/ conduct gives professionals way to quickly decide on a course of action when confronted with ethical dilemmas
Ethical Codes can be:
Prescriptive, behavioural, or Aspirational
Early Canadian Police Codes of Conduct
Department: How people carry themselves and/or behave
Modern Police Code of Ethics
- United Nations
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
- The British Columbia Police Code of Ethics
The Development of Codes of Ethics/Conduct for Lawyers
Federation of Law Societies Canada
Model Code of Professional Conduct
6 Ethical Principles for Judges (1998):
Introduction,
Judicial Independence,
Integrity and respect,
diligence and competence,
quality and impartiality
Correctional Officers
Correctional Service of Canada: Federal Level
- Code of Discipline and; relationships with offenders
Correctional Service of Canada: Level?
Federal Level
Correctional services under respective ministries or the Department of Justice: Level?
Provincial Level
Provinces with Professional conduct (Correctional officers)
Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan
Special Provincial Constables, Special Municipal constables
civilian employees who have been given limited peace officer or police officer powers by the Commissioner for a specific job or task. This includes offender transportation officers, security officers, court officers and forensic identification analysts
Security and Investigative Personnel Codes
International Code of Conduct for Private Security service providers
- The Council of Private Investigators of Ontario Code of Ethics
- Air Transport Security authority
- Code in British Columbia Security Services Regulation
- Code of Conduct Under Alberta Regulation 55/2010; and
* Code of Conduct—Ontario Regulation 363/07.
Importance of a Framework for Ethical Decision making
Without an understanding of ethical theories and codes of ethics, confronting/dealing with ethical problems is difficult.
T or F More than a basic knowledge and understanding of ethical theories, values, and codes is needed.
True
T or F some ethical dilemmas do not suggest an immediate course of action
True
Automatic responses to ethical dilemmas occur as a result of
Training, experience, and ethical values.
Framework for Ethical Decision-making tools availabe
Legislation, Policies and procedures, and ethical codes
Non-Specific Factors That
Influence Ethical Decision-Making
- Conscious or unconscious influences on an analysis/decision.
- Non-specific factors that influence ethical decisions include:
- An individual’s level of moral development, personal values,
and background; - The stakeholders;
- The culture, ideology, values, expectations, and common
practices in your employment setting; and - The political, economic, social, or technological climate
surrounding a situation.
The Stakeholders Categories
- You the decision-maker
- Those directly involved in the situation
- Relatives, Friends, co workers
- Your colleagues and supervisors
- Your Employer
- The wider profession to which you belong
- Members of the public general
(Spotting) Ethical Problem or Dilemma (Def)
A situation in which you are unsure of the right course of action to follow, in which the course of action you select is difficult to follow or unpalatable, or in which it is very tempting to choose the wrong course of action
(Spotting) Ethical Problem or Dilemma Cues
Harm: physical, emotional, and financial
Fairness
Respect for other peoples interests and autonomy
A Basis for a Framework for
Ethical Decision-Making
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CAPC) and the National Judicial Institute (NJI) frameworks
The CACP Framework:
Describes ethical foundations (justice, morality, the rule of law, and human dignity); provides a set of ethical values to guide decisions; and delineates executive/primary responsibilities
Problems with values when decision making
- Deciding which ethical values will guide decisions and actions;
- Assuming values do not need precise definitions
- Determining which should take priority when making a decision
Ethical Values included in Framework
Integrity, Courage, Compassion, Respect, Transparency, and Trustworthiness.
